Hazardous waste RCRA programs

Proper hazardous waste identification is essential to the success of the hazardous waste management program. The RCRA regulations require that any person who produces or generates a waste must determine if that waste is hazardous. For this purpose, the RCRA includes the following steps in the hazardous waste identification process2 ... 

The hazardous waste regulatory program as we know it today began with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in 1976. Since its enactment in 1976, the RCRA has been amended several times, to promote safer solid and hazardous waste management programs (Dennison, 1993). The Used Oil Recycling Act of 1980 and the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 (HSWA) were the major amendments to the original law. 

Under the RCRA, the hazardous waste management program is based on a cradle-to-grave concept, so that all hazardous wastes can be traced and accounted for fully. Section 3010(a) of the act requires all generators and transporters of hazardous wastes as well as owners and operators of all TSD facilities to file a notification with the ERA within 90 days after the promulgation of the regulations. The notification should state the location of the facility and include a general... 

To achieve these objectives, RCRA authorized EPA to regulate the generation, treatment, storage, transportation, and disposal of hazardous wastes. The structure of the national hazardous waste regulatory program envisioned by Congress is laid out in Subtitle C of RCRA (Sections 3001 through 3019), which authorized EPA to ... 

Parts 260 through 279. The core of the RCRA regulations establishes the cradle to grave hazardous waste regulatory program through seven major sets of regulations ... 

RCRA) establishes a framework for national programs to achieve environmentally sound management of both hazardous and nonhazardous wastes. RCRA also promotes resource recovery techniques and methods to reduce the generation of hazardous waste. RCRA is designed to protect human health and the environment, reduce and eliminate the generation of hazardous wastes, and conserve energy and natural resources. 

The main objectives of RCRA ate to protect pubHc health and the environment and to conserve natural resources. The act requires EPA to develop and adininistet the following programs soHd waste disposal practices providing acceptable protection levels for pubHc health and the environment transportation, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes practices that eliminate or minimize hazards to human health and the environment the use of resource conservation and recovery whenever technically and economically feasible and federal, state, and local programs to achieve these objectives. 

EPA, under Section 3006 of RCRA, may authorize a state to administer and enforce a state hazardous waste program in lieu of the federal Subtitle C program. To receive authorization, a state program must ... 

The J 984 Federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA, pronounced "hiss-wa") to RCRA requires phasing-out land disposal of hazardous waste. Some of the other mandates of this law include increased enforcement authority for EPA, more stringent hazardous waste management standards, and a comprehensive underground storage tank program. 

Since 1980, under RCRA Subtitle C, U.S. EPA has developed a comprehensive program to ensure that hazardous waste is managed safely from the moment it is generated while it is transported, treated, or stored until the moment it is finally disposed (Figure 12.1). This cradle-to-grave management system establishes requirements for each of the following ... 

To provide an overall perspective on how RCRA works, each of its programs—solid waste, hazardous waste, and USTs—and their interrelationships are briefly summarized here. The Subtitle D (solid waste) program is discussed prior to the Subtitle C (hazardous waste) program. Although this is alphabetically out of order, the structure is designed for better understanding by the reader. 

The RCRA statute additionally grants U.S. EPA broad enforcement authority to require all hazardous waste management facilities to comply with the regulations. The program also contains provisions that allow U.S. EPA to authorize state governments to implement and enforce... 

One statute in particular, the CERCLA, or Superfund, is closely tied to RCRA both are designed to protect human health and the environment from the dangers of hazardous waste. While these programs are similar, they do have different regulatory focuses RCRA regulates how wastes should be managed to avoid potential threats to human health and the environment CERCLA focuses on actual releases, or substantial threats of a release in the environment of a... 

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